The present invention relates generally to a seat belt for use in a motor vehicle and more particularly to a seat belt to be used by a sleeping motor vehicle passenger.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that children and others sleep while riding in a car. The existing seat belts in cars tend to irritate a sleeper. More importantly, existing seat belts cannot protect a user in a sleeping position, because they are intended to protect the user in a seated position. To this end, there have been several attempts to provide such a device. Parents can attest to the fact that children cannot easily sleep in an upright position. If a child is not allowed to sleep, he or she will become very cranky. Presently, parents usually allow their children to release their seat belt and lie on the back seat. This places the child at risk.
One such attempt is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,253, issued to D. Hall on Apr. 22, 1986, for a "Baby Sleeper for Automobiles". As the title denotes, Hall requires that the baby be strapped into a box that is, in turn, strapped to the bottom of a seat. Unfortunately, this device will not work with children older than babies, because the box would have to be too large. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,356, issued to M. Holmquist on May 26, 1987, discloses an "Adjustable Infant Bed and Seat". This patent also requires an additional seat that cannot be used with a child older and larger than an infant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,324,204, issued to M. Friedman, discloses an "Animal Safety Restraint for Vehicles". This patent discloses a very complex harness method to hold an animal such as a dog against the back of a seat. It fails to take advantage of the existing seat belts in a vehicle. Further, the harness cannot be used with a child, because the rear straps that attach to the back of the seat terminate well above seat level.
What is needed, then, is a seat belt apparatus for sleepers. This needed apparatus must be able to utilize portions of the existing seat belts in vehicles. Further, the needed apparatus must not require an additional seat or box member that can only be used by children of a given size. This apparatus is presently lacking in the prior art.